The local SEO checklist: 42 checks, and how to do each one in under a minute

Local SEO comes down to six areas: your Google Business Profile, your website, your reviews, your listings on other sites (citations), links from other local websites, and tracking what all of it produces. This checklist covers each area, in the order that matters, with a way to check every item yourself in under a minute. Work top to bottom. A problem in the first section, like a wrong category or a suspended profile, makes everything below it pointless until it is fixed.

1. The profile is verified and live. Check: search your exact business name signed out. If the profile does not appear, sign in to the profile and look for a verification prompt or a suspension notice.
2. The primary category is the most specific one that fits. Check: search your main service and city, open the top three listings, and read the category under each name. If theirs is more specific than yours, change yours.
3. Secondary categories describe real parts of the business. Check: read each one and finish the sentence this business is a. Remove any that only describe a product or a feature.
4. The name matches your sign exactly. Check: read it word by word against your signage and paperwork. No city, no service, no slogan that is not on the sign.
5. The address is real and staffed, or hidden. Check: if customers come to you, the address shows and the pin sits on your entrance on Google Maps. If you go to customers, the address is hidden and a service area is set.
6. The phone number reaches this location. Check: call it from your mobile. It should ring at the business, not a call centre or a number you do not control.
7. The website link goes to the right page. Check: tap Website on the profile. It should open your own site without bouncing through another domain, ideally on the page for this location.
8. Regular hours and special hours are right. Check: look at the hours on the profile, then at the next public holiday. If special hours are not set before the day, Google shows your regular hours.
9. Services are listed. Check: open the services section. Every job you want to be found for should be there, in the words customers use.
10. The description says what you do and where. Check: read it aloud. It has a 750 character limit and no links, and it should sound like you talking to a customer.
11. Photos are recent and real. Check: open the photos tab and look at the dates. If the newest is months old, add the work you did this week.
12. There is no duplicate profile. Check: search Google Maps for your phone number, then for your street address. A second listing for the same business should be claimed and merged or reported.
13. Google has not changed anything without you. Check: open the profile editor. Google updates show as blue text, with a notification at the top. Suggested edits from the public that need your review give you 4 days to accept or reject them before Google may publish them.

That last item is the one owners miss most. Google’s help page on updates to your profile explains that it gathers information from user reports and other sources and may change your profile when those sources disagree with it.

1. The homepage title and main heading name your service and your city. Check: open the homepage. The big heading at the top should say what you do and where. The title tag is the text on the browser tab.
2. Name, address, and phone match the profile on every page. Check: look at the footer. Compare it to the profile character by character, including the suite number and the area code.
3. Each main service has its own page. Check: open the menu. A visitor looking for one of your top three services should reach a page about that service in one click.
4. Each real location has its own page. Check: if you have more than one location, each should have a page with its own address, phone, hours, and directions, and each profile should link to its own page.
5. Hours on the site match the profile. Check: find your hours on the site, if you show them, and compare them day by day.
6. The site works on a phone. Check: open it on your mobile, tap the phone number, and make sure it dials.
7. The site is fast enough. Check: run the homepage through Google’s PageSpeed Insights and look at the mobile result.
8. Google can index it. Check: search site: followed by your domain. If key pages are missing, look for a noindex tag or a robots.txt rule blocking them.
9. LocalBusiness structured data is present and matches. Check: paste the homepage address into Google’s Rich Results Test and look for a local business item with the same name, address, and phone.

1. You have a review link ready to send. Check: can you text a customer your Google review link in ten seconds? If not, see our guide to getting your Google review link and QR code.
2. You ask every customer, the same way. Check: ask yourself who got asked last week. Google prohibits offering anything in exchange for a review and asking only the customers you expect to be happy.
3. Every review has a reply. Check: open your reviews and look at the last ten. Each should have a short, specific reply from the owner, the negative ones especially.
4. Reviews are recent. Check: look at the date of the newest review. If it was months ago, your asking has stopped.
5. Fake reviews are reported, with the policy named. Check: any review from someone who was never a customer should have a report filed. Our guide to reporting a fake Google review covers how.
6. The review sites for your trade are covered. Check: search your trade and city and see which review sites rank. Claim your listing on the two or three that appear.

Google’s own tips on getting more reviews cover the link and the QR code, and spell out the rule on incentives. Our guides to finding your Google review link and to reporting a fake Google review cover those two jobs step by step.

4. Citations and NAP consistency

A citation is any listing of your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) on another site: Apple Maps, Bing, Facebook, Yelp, your trade directories, the chamber of commerce. They matter less than they used to for the map results, but they still matter in two ways. Inconsistent ones confuse the systems that check whether your business is real, and AI assistants and other maps read them directly. The aim is a small number of correct listings, not a large number of any kind.

1. Apple Maps is claimed. Check: search your business in Apple Maps on an iPhone. Apple Business, which replaced Apple Business Connect in 2026, is free and lets you correct the place card.
2. Bing is claimed. Check: search your business on Bing. Bing Places for Business is free and can import your details from your Google profile.
3. Facebook and the main directories in your country match. Check: open each one and compare the name, address, and phone to your Google profile.
4. Old details are gone. Check: search your old phone number and your old address in quotes. Every listing that still shows them needs editing or removing.
5. Your trade directories list you. Check: search your trade and directory and claim the ones that appear for your city.

5. Links from other local websites

Google says prominence is partly based on how many websites link to your business. For a local business the useful links are local and real, and you probably have opportunities you have not used.

1. You know who already links to you. Check: open the Links report in Google Search Console, or search your business name in quotes and add -site: followed by your domain to see mentions on other sites.
2. The chamber of commerce and your trade association list you with a link. Check: find your entry and make sure the link points at your site.
3. Suppliers and partners link to you. Check: does the manufacturer you are certified with have a dealer or installer finder? Are you on it?
4. Local sponsorships and press link to you. Check: the club, school, or charity you support should list you as a sponsor with a link. Ask if they do not.
5. Mentions without a link are turned into links. Check: any page from the search above that names you without linking is worth a polite email.

1. Profile performance. Check: open Performance on the profile and compare calls, direction requests, and website clicks with the month before. Searches shows the terms people used to find you.
2. Tagged website link. Check: the website link on the profile carries UTM tags, for example ?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=business_profile, so your analytics shows profile visits separately from other search traffic.
3. Search Console. Check: look at the queries and pages report. It shows which searches bring people to the site, separate from the map.
4. Rank from the right places. Check: run the same searches from the same points every month, not from your own phone at the shop.

Google’s Business Profile performance help explains what each figure counts. For rank, our guide to checking your Google Maps ranking covers why a search from your own phone misleads, and the free local rank check gives you an honest first number from your address. When you are ready to act on the results, our guide to how to rank higher on Google Maps puts the fixes in order.

How often to run this checklist

• Once in full now, and again whenever something big changes: a move, a new phone number, a new website, a new location, a rebrand.
• The profile section monthly, because Google and the public can change your profile without asking.
• Reviews weekly. New reviews need replies within days, not at the end of the month.
• Tracking monthly, on the same day each month, so the comparisons are fair.

Questions people ask

What is the most important item on a local SEO checklist?

The primary category on your Google profile, followed by a name that follows Google’s rules. Both are free to fix and affect every search you could appear for.

Do I still need citations in 2026?

You need the main ones to be correct: Apple, Bing, Facebook, and the directories that matter for your trade and country. You do not need hundreds. Wrong details on a few big sites cause more trouble than missing listings on small ones.

How long does local SEO take to work?

Profile fixes like the category and name can show within a few weeks of the edit going live. Reviews and links build over months. Measure monthly, not daily.

Can I do local SEO myself?

Yes. Everything on this list can be checked and fixed by an owner. What gets hard is keeping it up every week: replying to every review, adding photos, posting, and noticing when Google changes something. That recurring part is what software or an agency usually takes over.